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Remodel Kitchen

8 Reasons to Finish Your Basement – Home Remodeling

Why should I finish my basement? It is a lot of stress to do it, and right now it looks so dark and dreary I really don’t see it being that nice of a place. I can give you a few reasons.
1) With the economy the way it is you will really get some bang for your buck. A Basement Finish Contractor is now charging around 20% less than they did in the past.
2) There is less waiting time. It used to be that you had to wait until you contractor had an opening, but with the economy the way it is you can now expect contractors to bend to your time line.
3) As a way to make up for the recession large stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s now offer volume discounts that could potentially save you thousands.
4) There is plenty of manpower available. The construction industry has really slowed to a halt the last couple of years, so there are tons of highly skilled workers waiting to do your job.
5) Loans have never been easier to obtain.
6) It is still cheaper to finish a basement than it is to build a new home.
7) Expanding your space can increase your equity in the home. It is estimated that for every $1,000 you spend on your basement you will be building $1,500 in equity.
8) You can now enjoy different kinds of living space. Some people build playrooms, workout areas, entertainment rooms, the use of the space is only limited by your imagination. If you need a Good Denver Remodeling Contractor look me up.

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Basement Remodeling

What Is the Most Popular Stair Tread? – Home Remodeling

If we were to go through history and find out which one of the stair stepping was used the most, we would probably end up with some type of a stone or rock, but we don’t have access to that kind of information. We’re going to base our finding of the most popular stair tread, off of the current trends.
It’s not hard to find this particular tread, because it’s an almost every house, and throughout the United States. If you haven’t figured it out, we’re talking about Oak and particularly Red Oak stair stepping. Now, I haven’t done a survey and you can’t hold me to it, but everywhere I look, I find stair steps and entire stairways that are made out of this particular building material.
I’ve been working on my stair building website for quite some time and have spent thousands of hours, creating all of the necessary parts, for it. During this time, I’ve been taking notes and making observations about what stair parts are popular among homeowners and which aren’t.
If you’re planning on building a stairway and you’re interested in a good solid wood stair step for, you have two choices. You can find a nice Oak stair steps or purchase any other stair step, made out of wood. Oak is obviously the most popular, even though there are plenty of stairways that use other types of wood.
One more note, make sure that you base your stair idea purchases on what you really want and not what everyone else has.

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Renovation Contractor

Where to Look For Small Bathroom Remodeling Ideas

Are you one of the million home owners who have made a decision on a house improvement project, such as remodeling your own bathroom? Remodeling is not the easiest thing to do; however, the triumph of past experiences in the home improvement field will surely come in handy. If you are also one of the many home owners that have little to no experience in this field, do not panic because it can be achieved by a first attempt. Maybe the actual approach to learning how to remodel is by taking a course on designing and modeling, but this method is not one-hundred percent effective and doable; at the same time, very time consuming. Another alternative other than taking classes is to purchase home improvement books and go through the self-learning process. Regardless of the truth that home remodeling books are usually packed with beneficial information, anyone feeling doubtful will question whether or not the books themselves are actually worth their value.
Prior to beginning the procedure of figuring out whether or not remodeling books are worth the time and value, an individual ought to think about a text meeting their expectations of completing a project. Some books, which may be titled, “how-to-guides,” or, “The handbook,” are great hard copy remodeling guides. They are written in order to assist you as a home owner on planning out your next, “do it yourself,” project. Not only will, “how-to-guides,” provide an individual with sufficient renovation ideas; but step-by-step guidelines. Nevertheless, in addition to having a tendency of providing an ample amount of in-depth directions and outlines; handbooks will be detailed enough so that you will receive a boost of knowledge and confidence to get certain tasks finished in a skillful manner. For example, swapping out and applying new floor tiles and such.
Ultimately you will come to a conclusion on which book is necessary for the job that fits the criteria. Chances are, after reading this article; you have already made preparations on purchasing a textbook that will expand your horizon. Due to the fact that this is solely based on a number of various aspects, you will have the option of obtaining a text in many different formats. You will discover a number of guides that will span from all dimensions of information, to receiving directions on several home improvement projects. Meanwhile, there are those that will be dedicated to the concentration of one or many plausible issues, related to bathroom, kitchen, living room, patios, and etc. For anyone who is looking to have a whole bathroom remodeled, it is usually a great strategy of buying books that specifically base themselves off from numerous remodeling fields. As for a different type of project, such as kitchen remodeling, it would be safe to purchase books which only cover tasks that relate to kitchens. The most effective way of guaranteeing that any book is worthwhile, is by ensuring that the book in which you are contemplating on possessing will be utilized to your advantage.

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Room Additions

Home Remodeling ROI in 2012

People often refer to home remodeling as one of the best investments you can make. It’s a great way to update your home and keep up with growing trends or a growing family. The best part is, you usually get most of it back when you sell your home. The kitchen and the bathroom were always the shining example of this. But in 2010-2011 the trend for remodeling projects with the highest Return On Investment (ROI) have shifted from larger home remodels, to smaller home improvement projects. These projects include new exterior paint, window and door replacement, or garage replacements.
A high ROI a homeowner can expect on a kitchen remodel used to be 75-85%. However, according to this year’s Cost vs. Value report that assess home remodeling projects from various regions all around the country, the ROI for a typical kitchen remodel has dropped to 57% for 2011. This is as much as a 30% decrease over the last 5 years. The drop does seem to be bottoming out, which is a sign that the housing market may be as well. But with such a significant drop, it can be easy to understand home remodeling contractors may be experiencing a decrease in kitchen remodels.
Conversely, contractors may be experiencing more work in the home improvement spectrum. Replacement projects typically outperform remodeling projects anyways due to their relatively low cost (a replacement project is any remodeling project completed under $18,000). One of the best replacement project a homeowner can do for their home is a window and door replacement. According to the Cost vs. Value report, a window and door replacement can return over 70% of the cost, 13% higher than kitchen remodeling’s ROI. New windows and doors are considered a valuable replacement projects because there have been numerous advancement in window and door technology, specifically advancements in energy efficiency. This is especially appealing to homeowners since more efficient windows and doors can lower utility bills, which is a huge plus in this market. It might seem obvious that the value of saving money has wide appeal, but it wasn’t too long ago that double ovens and hummers were in fashion.
Home remodeling and the housing market have slowed down, but there are optimistic signs that things are getting better. According the “Housing 360” report by Hanley Wood, about 42% of homeowners feel that it’s a good time to remodel their homes. For homeowner’s with a higher income of $100,000 or more, the statistic increases to 56%. The lack of credit still makes it hard for homeowners to buy new homes or renovate their existing homes. But recently, people have been watching their money closely and been able to provide the money for their home remodeling projects with cash. In fact, 80% of homeowners use cash for remodeling their home.

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Remodeling Contractors

Should You Hire A Remodeling Contractor Or Do The Job On Your Own?

Many people like to do the home renovation jobs by themselves and treat them as weekend DIY projects, as this allows people to save their hard earned money. You can even find nowadays many workshops that teach you the basics of home remodeling so you are more confident in your abilities of doing the job by yourself.
However not everyone has the time to invest in doing such a huge project, particularly with having a regular job as well, so hiring a contractor is the next best thing. But this comes with a set of other problems altogether. First you need to find the contractor, then to hire him and then discuss the job. Then hopefully he will execute your commands without mistakes. Sadly there are many bad apples out there that give contractors a bad name and this is one reason why many people shy away from asking the help of a professional. They say they can do a much better job of it and in many cases they are right.
If you’ve decided to go through the route of hiring a contractor, there are a few things you need to pay attention to. For example one aspect you might consider is price. However avoid hiring somebody just because he has the best prices on offer. This is particularly important if the offer is even cheaper than what you’ve initially estimated. Something is usually wrong with such offers.
One thing that people end up being angry about once the contract is over is the fact that they have to pay extra, more than what they’ve initially agreed. When you sign the contract, make sure you read everything, including the small print. Anything extra that needs to be purchased, such as more materials, should be first approved by you. You don’t have to pay for anything that was not planned and discussed with the contractor beforehand.
As you can see, there are indeed many reasons why one would want to do the home remodeling on their own, without hiring a professional contractor. However this doesn’t mean that you will be scammed out of your money or you will get a bad job all the time. If you decide to hire somebody, you simply need to do your due diligence and learn as much as you can about your contractor, so you can be sure that you get, indeed, a good job done at the end of the day.